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Speaker: Near future holds promise for treating patients with glaucoma
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SAN FRANCISCO — With research advances being made in underlying pathogenesis, diagnosis, microincision devices, medications and medication-delivery vehicles, 2013 holds great promise for treating patients with glaucoma, according to a speaker here.
Louis B. Cantor, MD, in the keynote address at the New Horizons Forum during the Glaucoma 360 meeting, asked the question, “Is ’13 our lucky number?”
Cantor, an OSN Glaucoma Board Member, discussed recent research showing that glaucoma is no longer considered an eye disease but a central nervous system disorder. There is also a greater understanding of what is occurring in the brain of glaucoma patients.
There is a decrease in volume in several areas of the brain, as well as compensatory increases in other areas, he said. This research may signal the need for earlier, more aggressive treatment.
While investigators have seemingly hit a wall in advances in visual field research, a new perimetry technique of short-duration transient visual evoked potentials is showing a very good correlation between structure and function, he said.
In the area of neuroprotection, research is leading toward retinal ganglion cell protection, according to Cantor.
Finally, advances in microincision glaucoma surgery with newly approved devices and soon to be approved devices in the U.S. are leading toward safer and more effective procedures.
Disclosure: Cantor is a consultant to Abbott Medical Optics.